Before Star Trek, Leonard Nimoy Guest-Starred In A Western Series No One Remembers

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Long before the Matt Damon tried to decipher his own past and identity in the Jason Bourne movies Robert Horton did the same thing in the Old West. "A Man Called Shenandoah" saw the former "Wagon Train" star wandering the frontier in search of his own past in what was a short-lived series that nonetheless featured some notable guest stars, including future Spock actor Leonard Nimoy.

As esteemed as he remains, Nimoy's career outside of "Star Trek" has some significant blemishes. For one thing, he was frequently cast as Native Americans in classic Western TV shows and didn't ever seem too bothered about the fact he had zero native ancestry. In the book "Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish" (via Tablet) Nimoy is quoted as saying, "The first Indian role that I took was a role that a Native Indian turned down because the Indian character was so unredeemably bad. I was happy to get the work, thank you very much." Not quite what you'd hope for from the half-Vulcan champion of rationality, really.

Still, there's no denying the man's standing as a Hollywood legend. What's more, Nimoy didn't always play Native Americans during his pre-"Star Trek" years. In "A Man Called Shenandoah," for example, he played a cowboy hired to gun down the star of the show. He didn't last long.

Robert Horton played scout Flint McCullough on "Wagon Train" for five seasons between 1957 and 1962. Interestingly enough, not only was "Wagon Train" the Western that partly inspired "Star Trek," during its five-season run it welcomed Leonard Nimoy, who appeared in four separate episodes playing Mexican, Native American, and Spanish characters. When Horton moved on to "A Man Called Shenandoah" in 1965, Nimoy once again paid him a visit. This time however, he played a straight up cowboy hitman.

"A Man Called Shenandoah" aired on ABC from September 1965 to May 1966. The show was nowhere near as successful as "Wagon Train," however, which had run for eight seasons between 1957 and '65. "A Man Called Shenandoah," by comparison, ran for just 34 half-hour black and white episodes. Set in the 1870s, the show focused on Horton's mystery man, who after being shot is left for dead only to be transported to a nearby town by buffalo hunters where he regains consciousness. When he does so, he has no memory of who he is or why somebody would want him dead. He's then given the nickname Shenandoah by the doctor that helps revive him.

The rest of the series follows Horton as he tries to piece together his life prior to being shot. Along the way he encounters a number of characters played by some legendary stars and character actors including Ed Asner, Bruce Dern, Martin Landau, Cloris Leachman, and, of course, Nimoy. The actor appeared in Season 1, Episode 17, "Run, Killer, Run" in which he's hired to take out Horton's amnesiac hero in what was a nice little showcase for the actor a year prior to making his debut as Spock.

"Run, Killer, Run" sees Robert Horton's Shenandoah working at a wharf. Hotel proprietor Matthew Crawson (Sandy Kenyon) recognizes him and is immediately nervous. Turns out that prior to being struck by amnesia, Shenandoah witnessed Crawson stabbing a man to death. To take care of the problem, Crawson hires Leonard Nimoy's Del Hillman, a gunman who agrees to kill Shenandoah for $200. But Horton's hero gets the better of Hillman, who winds up on a doctor's table with little chance of making it through the night. Soon, Crawson sneaks in and smothers Hillman before he, himself, is killed, leaving Shenandoah none the wiser as to his own identity.

"Run, Killer, Run" involved multiple Western veterans. Not only was Horton a former "Wagon Train" star but Nimoy had appeared on everything from "The Virginian" and "Death Valley Days" to "Gunsmoke" and "Rawhide." Nimoy even played three different characters on "Broken Arrow." What's more, director Nathan Juran of "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman" fame had worked on "Gunsmoke" and multiple other episodes of "A Man Called Shenandoah" prior to directing Nimoy in his one and only guest spot on the series.

The result is a great episode that showcases Nimoy in a more traditional but perhaps much more suitable role as a gunslinger rather than a blood-thirsty native — as was the case when Nimoy guested on Clint Eastwood's "Rawhide" just a few years prior. Soon, however, he would mostly move on from the Old West thanks to his casting in "Star Trek," which debuted on NBC in September 1966, four months after "A Man Called Shenandoah" was canceled. Neither us nor Horton's character ever did find out who he was.